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Turner selling ailing WCW to rival WWF

Posted: Saturday, March 24, 2001

By Justin BachmanAssociated Press

ATLANTA -- The World Wrestling Federation is buying the ailing World Championship Wrestling business from AOL Time Warner Inc., ending an rivalry that has inflamed professional wrestling fans for nearly 20 years.

WCW, a division of Turner Broadcasting System Inc., had been planning to stop production after Monday night, but the deal announced Friday gives it new life. Stamford, Conn.-based WWF, whose Monday show is the top-rated program on cable, said it will produce new WCW programming on The National Network.

''This is a smart business decision and a good investment for us,'' said Linda McMahon, chief executive of World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Inc., which also owns the XFL in a partnership with NBC. ''We're grabbing it because it is simply that kind of opportunity.''

Fans of the two rivals have debated for years about which company's wrestlers were tougher, and WWF said they would start ''cross-brand story lines'' soon.

In a conference call with reporters, McMahon declined to say which WCW performers would be offered work at WWF.

Turner had been shopping the troubled WCW, which lost an estimated $80 million in 2000, since last summer. A deal with Fusient Media Ventures, a New York media investment company, fell through after Turner decided to stop airing pro wrestling on its networks.

Neither company would discuss terms of the deal, although people familiar with the WCW's business said the prime asset WWF is acquiring is an extensive film library dating to the 1970s, merchandise and some production and exercise equipment.

This article published in the Athens Daily News on Saturday, March 24, 2001.